Camera mount on aircraft

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yourcfi

Well-Known Member
Has anyone mounted a camera on the fuselage of a cessna/piper. I would like to confirm more senior pilots and preferabbly anyone who may have ventured into this:

Safety issue # 1: Any issues associated with airframe and airflow? Especially impacting flight characteristics even when not mounted close to the leading edge of the wing?

Safety issues #2: Suction and/or duct tape and issues with possible equipment falling off.

These two concerns could be mitigated by doing a search on STC for my aircraft and I will be doing that research as well but would like to hear from those who may have don it already.
Anything else I may be missing?

I am thinking of talking to an airframe mechanic as well. Thanks in advance and advise if I need to take this discussion off from here and put it somewhere else more appropriate.

Kind regards.
 
Anytime you stick something on the side of an airplane it is going to affect airflow. Anytime you permanently install something it needs to be approved. That said, as long as you make sure you're not interfering with flight controls, I've never heard of an actual noticeable negative effect from one...so just use a little common sense Of the thousands of GoPros mounted on airplanes I believe the number with any sort of approval are in very very rare and I expect the number of FAA inspectors who give a crap are just as rare.

If a Cessna, just get a clamp-on strut mount... simple, safe, effective. If your own airplane, just use the adhesive GoPro mounts, they are low profile and inconspicuous.

But, I have a friend who's a professional videographer, he regularly duct tapes the things on airplanes and says that's his favorite mount... so what do I know.
 
I would go with gaffers tape over duct tape. Super strong, but much easier to remove, and doesn't leave glue over everything. (This is the preferred Hollywood/photographer tape. Any decent photo store goes through tons of the stuff)
 
rframe said:
Anytime you stick something on the side of an airplane it is going to affect airflow. Anytime you permanently install something it needs to be approved. That said, as long as you make sure you're not interfering with flight controls, I've never heard of an actual noticeable negative effect from one...so just use a little common sense Of the thousands of GoPros mounted on airplanes I believe the number with any sort of approval are in very very rare and I expect the number of FAA inspectors who give a crap are just as rare.

If a Cessna, just get a clamp-on strut mount... simple, safe, effective. If your own airplane, just use the adhesive GoPro mounts, they are low profile and inconspicuous.

But, I have a friend who's a professional videographer, he regularly duct tapes the things on airplanes and says that's his favorite mount... so what do I know.
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Thank you so much. Appreciate the response and will forward this to my photographer friend, who will be accompanying me for this :)
 
drunkenbeagle said:
I would go with gaffers tape over duct tape. Super strong, but much easier to remove, and doesn't leave glue over everything. (This is the preferred Hollywood/photographer tape. Any decent photo store goes through tons of the stuff)
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Thank you! I will look into this options.
 
Get some spare inspection hole covers and RAM mounts. You can also experiment with tie down eyelets as good hard points as well.
 
Flymh47 said:
Get some spare inspection hole covers and RAM mounts. You can also experiment with tie down eyelets as good hard points as well.
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I recently made a post about this same subject, and the Cessna/ Piper inspection cover mount is a great idea, if your rental outfit is okay with it. The C210 pilots do something similar with mirrors to verify three wheels when landing. Today I happened to fly the Pitts with two GoPro's on it, wasn't on an inspection cover but they did stay on through our maneuvering flight between 180MPH & +5, -2 g's. Didn't budge.
 
CFI A&P said:
Haha, the Pitts is a blast. I threw up a photo from the GoPro in the Christmas present thread.
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:)

Never flown a Pitts. Would love to, although I'd probably just make myself sick after a year+ of straight and level, don't spill the drinks.
 
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